Assignment #22 and #23: Personal Challenge Vitamins and Minerals

Now, combine the last challenge (from post #20) and add in your required vitamins and minerals.  How are you meeting (or not meeting) these requirements?  Post below.


Can you meet all of your requirements AND meet the guidelines on the My Plate/My Food Pyramid?  Show your diet below--and if you need to, you can post a daily intake of what you would NEED to eat to meet these requirements.

Assignment #22 My plan for the semester is...

So, the cafeteria awaits you…now what?  A friend needs nutritional help--an athlete, a friend that is on some freakish starvation plan, whatever...

Your choices are as follows:

1.  Stay the same as always

2.  Make poorer food choices (you know, that entire bowl of ranch dressing…)

3.  Apply what you have learned.

MAKE A PLAN.  It doesn’t matter if the plan is for you or to help someone you know.  However, you’ll learn more if the plan can help you do something better!  Let’s face it: fat isn’t healthy, and twig skinny weakness isn’t either.  We need to change our way of thinking:  it’s the lean-to-fat ratio that matters.

How much weight do we lose in LEAN tissue when we diet without exercise?  REAL Research reports state around 45%.  HOLY COW!  Do we want to lose bone and muscle and other “good” tissues so that the number on the sale goes down?  As much as it seems like a no-brainer, I’ve recently discovered a family member (who was already sedentary and weak) that has lost more than 40 pounds.  How?  By eating ice chips.  I am NOT kidding.  How healthy or fit do you think this person is?  What would have happened to bone density? Muscle and other lean tissues? (person is around 45).

At some point, we all need to develop a healthy life plan.  If you don’t, well, you’ll look like most of those adults you see around you.  Or, you will get trapped in the horrifically scary, never-ending magazine and internet fad diets. 

How healthy are these options?  Maybe you have good role models (Dr. Hull comes to mind for me…) or, perhaps it’s difficult at home. 

For all of you, the cafeteria is a challenge.  Having a healthy plan includes developing your own plan and, if you wish, working with me to work with the cafeteria.  THEY DO CARE! Did you know there was an advisory board for the cafeteria?  Attending these meetings can really make a difference—but only if you get involved and assist the cafeteria.  The task of feeding you guys isn’t easy, and those of you shadowing there will figure that out quickly!

The assignment by email:

#1.  What will happen to my family member on the ice-chip diet when she returns to eating somewhat normal foods?  [hint…think about what happened to her lean-fat ratio and what will happen when calorie consumption goes up after that]

#2.  MAKE A PLAN.  The plan can be for you or someone you know (teammate, roommate, etc).  You need to provide a weekly plan and an overall monthly plan.  Of course, if at all possible, physical activity needs to be part of the picture. 

Send via email as this assignment may contain personal information.

Assignment #21: The Vitamins and Minerals

We aren’t going to have sufficient time to cover the vitamins and minerals in depth as I had hoped.  Regardless, the next assignment won’t be that difficult.  Each of you is assigned a group of Vitamins and Minerals. I’ll send you each group by email. The goal is to tell your fellow students the following:

A)     A general description—is it fat soluble?  Water soluble?  What is it chemically? 

B)     Why the vitamin or mineral is needed.  Do a good job here—tell us WHY it’s needed (not just “it helps eyesight”).  You will see that each vitamin and mineral does many, many jobs!

C)     What foods are excellent or good sources of the vitamin or mineral

From what your classmates provide, make a “master table” for use during the 3^rd exam.  Email me your “master table” for credit. 

Assignment #20--Second phase of personal challenges

Three days to go...and 3 days of personal challenges...one each day.


Today: Based on your personal goals...today's challenge is to meet your kcal goals IN COMBINATION WITH meeting the correct % of each of the energy nutrients.


You need to clearly show HOW you've met your requirements...and the % of your total kcals is made up from protein, lipid, and carbohydrate.

Tomorrow (I will add a separate posting section) you will add the vitamins and minerals.


Before the class ends...can you meet all of your requirements AND meet the guidelines on the My Plate/My Food Pyramid.

ONLY ONE DAY....CAN YOU DO IT????

Assignment #19—The Scouring Calf

As it turns out, in the middle of the metabolism section of this course, I find myself with a severely “scoured” calf on my hands.  The primary symptom of scours is diarrhea—lots and lots of it.  We are doing everything we can—electrolytes, meds, around-the-clock care—everything.  So far, we’ve stayed ahead of the dehydration battle, and we hope she will survive. 

Of course, in severe cases fluids given subcutaneously (under the skin—absorbed by tissues) or intravenously are needed.  There are two main types oral electrolyte choices in situations not requiring immediate fluids (regardless of species!).  For the oral route, and in providing sufficient nutrients, current recommendations have really changed!

In the past, it was recommended that all milk be removed from the diet until the scours resolved.  Now, that is not advised at all.  Currently, the two options of oral supplementation of fluids and elctrolytes are:

1.       Supplementation with solutions that contain glucose, electrolytes, and sodium bicarbonate.  This can’t be mixed with milk feedings; milk feedings must alternate with the electrolyte feedings because the bicarbonate interferes with milk digestion.  Typically ~2 hours between feedings is needed. 

2.      Supplementation with solutions that contain glucose, glycine, electrolytes and no sodium bicarbonate.  This can be mixed with milk and/or there is no “waiting period” between electrolyte and milk feedings.

We began with #1—alternating feedings, then, switched to #2 in hopes she could handle feedings that were similar a little better—i.e. we were mixing milk and a #2 type of supplement.

After consultation with our lovely vet, he wishes for us to return now to #1, as he is concerned that acidity will be a problem.

Your assignment—BY EMAIL—is to tell me:

1.       Why is he concerned (and correct!).  Why are acidic conditions likely to result in cases of scours or chronic diarrhea?  [hint:  think about today’s two screencasts!]

2.      How does the addition of sodium bicarbonate help alleviate the acidity?

3.      Specifically, how does sodium bicarbonate interfere with milk digestion?

Due 1/16/18 by midnight

Assignment #18—response to Protein supplementation ScreenCast

Complete the assignment I give you at the end of the "proteins supplements" Screen Cast and EMAIL me  the following:

What is the difference between whey protein powder  in:

-Specific amino acid content--ie how much of each AA is supplied

- total protein (grams)

-kcalories

Compare to

A.  Albumen (egg white)

B.  Any other food you choose

C. A different protein (muscle building) supplement

You need to show the specific AA content, total protein, and kcals for each of the 3.  You will do math similar to what I did on the ScreenCast

EMAIL your answer and we will post them later. 

Assignment #17:  Lipid Transport

For good reasons, lipid transport gets a great deal of attention—this is what involves the HDL and LDL that you’ve probably heard or read about.  These are  lipoproteins—lipid + protein = lipoprotein.

A student once told me to remember: HDL = happy and LDL = lousy to help remember which of the lipoproteins are indicated for better versus poorer health.  However, there are more lipid transport LIPOPROTEINS than just HDL and LDL.  The others are chylomicrons, and VLDL.  Each of these (HDL, LDL, VLDL, and chylomicrons) act differently in the body.

Each gets its name from the density of the compound.  The more triglyceride in substance = lower density.  The happy versus lousy thing?  That is determined by what happens to these lipid-transporting molecules in the body. 

Chylomicrons contain the greatest % of triglyceride, whereas HDL contains the least.  In order of triglyceride content (most to least):  chylomicrons, VLDL, LDL, and HDL.  The blood content of these lipoproteins has major health implications, and, here begins your assignment.

To help you understand the role of these lipoproteins, and to help you clarify the 3 types of studies I wanted to you to know (epidemiological, laboratory-based, human clinical trial), you need to find THREE real studies that have been performed to examine the effect of these lipoproteins.

You will find and describe to the group studies that examined any or several of the lipoproteins:

1.       An epidemiological study:  see the screen cast in which I clarified this for you!

2.      A laboratory-based study:  think rats, mice, test-tube, other in-the-lab type of studies

3.      Human/clinical trial:  this should be the ONLY one you describe that examines treatments/diets/exercise/whatever on individuals.  Don’t confuse #1 and #3!

Assignment due 1/24/18 by midnight